SCARLETT’S DIARY #2 – Interview with Jonathan Tybel, producer and actor

Scarlett – How did you first get into acting?Jonathan – I was a child actor. So I was sent out by my family actually super super early in my life but my friend had a friend who was a director and she had said that if I wanted, it would be great to put me in some commercials. I started off doing a commercial in a short film with my mum’s friend and really liked it and ended up working over summer, because I grew up in Ice-land but spent my summers in Germany and Poland. And that was a really fun activity for me to do in the summer. So I’ve acted since I was little – maybe 7 or 8 years old. I always enjoyed it, so I did a lot of theatre and some sort of kids tv programmes back then and always did it parallel though to my regular life – I wasn’t homeschooled or I never worked as a full time actor as a child – just sort of as an extracurricular hobby. Then I sort of gradually moved into a little bit more grown up acting instead of doing some theatre, put that on hold for a while when I went to university in London but landed a couple of jobs as a TV host. So I worked on television for MTV and fashion TV for a couple of years. It wasn’t necessarily considered acting but it was sort of working in front of the camera. And while I was graduating in London, I realised I was missing acting a lot and as I had my sort of plan B/proper degree from university, I decided to move to the US and I got into a very good theatre school there. So I went to Stella Adler Academy, which is part of New York University and it’s a very respected theatre school. I graduated from a theatre course there instead of taking that acting route and trying to give it a go. And worked a bit in the US in more theatre. So yeah that’s kind of the trajectory.

Scarlett – What’s your favourite part you’ve played in in movie/TV?

Jonathan – So I had bits and pieces. I don’t know what my favourite part was because none of the parts were ever a leading role and I think only the leading roles really enable you to give a performance. When you have smaller parts or supporting roles even, you don’t really often get to fully show what you can or develop and give a full on performance. But my favourite experi-ence was one of a film I did with Sharon Stone, where I had a small part, but it was the part of her assistant in the film and the part was distributed throughout the film, so I wasn’t set for most of the shooting days. So instead of coming on set, spending 2 or 3 days and leaving, I was there for 16 days; it was a really great experience in the sense that maybe I didn’t necessarily love the part and it wasn’t something where I could really work on the performance, but I loved the experience of being on set and spending all the time with all the actors, becoming friends with them, working a lot and spending a lot of time with Sharon Stone, which was super cool. She’s a bit of a movie legend and very special and eccentric person/personality as well… which is incredible to meet and spend time with someone larger than life in that sense. So I think that was for sure my favourite experience, even if doesn’t have necessarily too much to do with the part I was playing.

Scarlett – What would be your top tips for preparing for a scene/casting?

Jonathan – There’s a few but I would say however good you think you are and however good your education is (because of course we have actors coming from the Rada and Juilliard, which are the best schools in the world and we have actors coming from no acting school but are also incredibly good) and however talented you think you are, I think it’s always about putting the time in. There are no shortcuts in preparing for a part or an audition, or winging it. You always always always have to put in the time and know the lines so well that you can basically perform the lines in your sleep – because only then, when the lines become absolute second nature, they almost feel as if they are your own words, only then can you really give a natural and good and well rounded performance. I think to be honest, it’s always the time and there’s actually no shortcuts in trying to do something quick or winging it, even if you’re super super extremely tal-ented – that doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand.

Scarlett – What were the biggest struggles you faced in Hollywood?

Jonathan – One of the struggles of course is the financial aspect of it, because to be able to commit your full self and all the time you have for driving to auditions, classes, meetings… you have to have time but also money. Often, you also have to get a job so you really have to be smart about time management. And you really have to be disciplined in order to get ahead. If lets say, the financial aspect isn’t an issue, which for many it isn’t, then it’s the opportunity to actually be in things. Because obviously as an actor, you most of the time start off with smaller parts, which are once in a while. So even if you have a great education, you really need that op-portunity to be on a camera, to be on set – and most actors don’t get that opportunity to be on set a lot. So I think the hardest aspect, when you are beginning is having the opportunity to be on set and be in front of a camera and get the experience that you need in order to deliver a great performance. I think the second struggle for many is to get the right representation, which is almost like the first step in every performing artists career. It’s just so difficult because you’re competing against so many people and agents can only commit to so many people on their side. So it’s really kind of a numbers game to find the representation, which is always sort of the starting point – because without that, nothing really moves – however good you are and howev-er hard you work.

Scarlett – Obviously technology has become even more prevalent these days with COVID. What do you think of the idea of digitized castings and using a virtual platform for acting, as MMA does?

Jonathan – In the US, that is already very very big, so a lot of the preliminary castings are usually on video and that’s been the case for years. I think it completely revolutionised the casting pro-cess because especially in a city like LA, everything takes a lot of time, so you end up driving to places and parking and all of that. So if you are able to send something on video to the casting director, it saves everybody a lot of time and has basically revolutionised the casting process. I’m not sure how it is in Europe, but in the US it’s already very common practise. When it comes to a callback and it’s between you and a few people for a specific part, then you get called to be seen in person, which I also think is extremely important… but maybe not quite in the first round, because you end up being on screen or video anyhow, so they don’t necessarily need to see you right away in person when it comes to your appearance. Because I think the first round when choosing a character is mostly their appearance and then the actual real acting skills come in later, after they’ve established you’re right for the part, because certain physical attributes make you right for the part or not. So I really believe in digitised casting and I think it’s where we should be heading regardless.

Scarlett – What’s one piece of advice that you would give to aspiring actors and actresses?

Jonathan – Yeah, I think it’s really just committing the time and I know it sounds silly, but the patience. I know that everybody keeps on saying “don’t give up, don’t give up”, and it actually really is true and its the reason people are saying and why big movie stars keep on saying this as well, because many of them haven’t given it up and that’s why they are where they are. I actu-ally do see that right now, in the span of the years, I have many friends who I went to school with, who are now in TV shows or movies, who aren’t maybe movie start but who are working and they have not given up and they have sort of struggled, taken the time, kept on going how hard it was. So as silly as it sounds, it really is that. I guess also, try to live life the fullest so you don’t get sick of the process – because the process is extremely hard so while you don’t give up and work and fight/struggle, just remember to also enjoy life meanwhile.

Interview by Scarlett Caudwell – Burgess, Junior Editor MM Agency Magazine